Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!pacbell!pacbell.com!mips!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!jarthur!bridge2!3comvax!tymix!tardis!jms
From: jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Exabyte (8mm) versus DAT (4mm)
Message-ID: <1151@tardis.Tymnet.COM>
Date: 10 Jul 90 01:23:06 GMT
References: <9007061713.AA01816@stc06.CTD.ORNL.GOV> <1881@proa.SV.DG.COM>
Reply-To: jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith)
Organization: BT Tymnet, San Jose, CA
Lines: 26

In article <1881@proa.SV.DG.COM> gary@proa.SV.DG.COM () writes:
>In article <9007061713.AA01816@stc06.CTD.ORNL.GOV> de5@ornl.gov (Dave Sill) writes:
>>DEC seems to be pushing DAT's, and argues that they're inherently
>>better since they were designed to record digital data, whereas 8mm is
>>an analog video format.
>
>Why wasn't this sent to rec.humor.funny?  This is the funniest thing I've
>seen on the net this year.  Did someone actually say that?
>Digital Audio Tape was designed to record SOUND.

The read/write heads and associated electronics for an 8mm tape were
originally designed for video signals stored in analog form, and great
pains were taken to ensure linear response.  Encoding digital data as
ones and zeros was not the major goal.  Circuitry external to the video
section is required to keep the error rate down.

DAT was designed from the ground up to store digital data only.  It is
fully optimized for handling bits, bytes, and blocks.

So, it's not a question of what type of connectors are on the outside of
the box, but rather what the insides are designed for.
-- 
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